How did you find us?

Do you want to receive email updates about your activity on the site and lending opportunities on the site?

Advice to Borrowers – From a Lender

Kylie Greeff

26th November 2018

Tips for Raising P2P Finance

Brian Johnson has been a regular lender on rebuildingsociety.com since 2014, supporting many UK SMEs in their growth aspirations along the way. Brian also has many years’ experience of managing and running his own businesses, so understands the difficulties businesses encounter in raising finance and has seen how businesses can use P2P finance to their advantage and how rebuildingsociety.com facilitates more than just a business loan.

We met up with Brian to find out what tips he would give businesses who are looking to get a business loan through rebuildingsociety.com.

1. Present Information Accurately

Brian believes that the accurate and concise presentation of the business loan profile is a key part to a successful loan.

Presenting your business in an engaging way that is easy to understand will significantly help lenders get behind your business. Brian says that whilst the rebuildingsociety.com site has a specific framework in which information is presented to lenders, he encourages businesses to also include additional supplementary information if possible, to support the loan process. Including a business plan and video of the business or about the directors is a great way to engage more quickly with lenders.

2. Engage Openly and Honestly

Engaging openly, honestly and with genuine goodwill is a crucial factor to ensure that the crowd gets behind the business and offers the finance required. Brian stresses that it’s not only important for the business to engage openly at the outset but also to maintain engagement throughout the loan term.

By engaging in this way, Brian says that the lending community will not only support the business in raising the finance but will also support the business through ‘the good times and the bad’. Businesses raising finance through rebuildingsociety.com are raising finance form individuals not an institution, which allows a certain amount of flexibility and understanding that would not be afforded to the borrower when borrowing from a bank.

3. Make Use of the Support Offered

Borrowing from individuals such as Brian, opens up a whole community of experienced individuals that will not only support your business financially, but will also, in many cases, be able to provide you with business advice and consultancy.

Furthermore, the rebuildingsociety.com team provide a ‘huge amount of support and guidance’ to the borrowing business, therefore, you’re getting more than finance through rebuildingsociety.com, and as such , Brian says businesses should not ‘be put off by what appears to be a slightly higher interest rate.. as its more than repaid through the support from the rebuildingsociety team’ and it’s lenders.

Brian is just one of thousands of active and engaged lenders in our lending community, that are ready and eager to support British SME’s.

As a lending platform, we will not only help you raise finance, but we will also provide you with tools and the means to promote your business in local, national and trade press, thereby giving your business great exposure to a wide range of investors as well as potential future clients. In the past we’ve helped our borrowers get featured in BBC Look North, The Yorkshire Post, The Financial Times and many other local papers and trade press.

If you’re looking for a business loan and want access to our community of experienced and supportive lenders, take 5 minutes to apply now!